I got into the metro and the guy ahead of me looks at his reflection and dances. Maybe that’s what late nights do to you, they allow you to be more expressive. Anyway, I get myself a seat and the gate of the metro stays open so that more people can board it, it reminds of those even-odd days in Delhi when bus number 507 that I usually took would stop until they got a good number of passengers on board.

I sit on the seat with an empty mind and stare at my phone. After a few stations, a gentleman comes and sits on the empty seat on my right. He has his headphones on and is listening to Ae Kaash Ke Hum. I used to love that song once but then I listened to it so much that I started disliking it, does it ever happen to you?

So, the metro continues to find its way on those zig-zag tracks until it enters the dark underground tunnel only to move like a snake through its burrow. After two stations, I’ll have to get down and find my way home.

Doors will open, people will board and deboard the metro until this moving box gets to its destination.

I like to think of myself as a traveller and not a tourist but there is nothing right and nothing wrong, it is just that I happen to relate to it more. Let me tell you about my recent travel to Jaipur from the capital of India. This is going to be a candid one so I believe you will enjoy it.

Returning late from work on a Friday evening, I and my friend (colleague) started talking about going somewhere on the extended weekend as Monday was an off. Nothing materialized but I suggested we can go to Jaipur since it is just under 300 km from the city, we left for our places only to talk about it later at night.

I went home, checked my emails and then logged into facebook and then talked to that same friend and he said let’s go, I said yes and we decided to meet at Sarai Kale Khan Inter-State Bus Terminus in New Delhi from where we would catch our ride to Jaipur – The Pink City.

Fast-forward to the next morning. We reached Sarai Kale Khan and sat in the first bus that was leaving for Jaipur and then we shook hands because we started on this unplanned trip, still not sure where we would stay, how many days, how much money we needed and what we would do there. Let me talk about the bus a bit more and also tell you the price (also, I can visit this later and recall how much I paid).

The bus was of Haryana Roadways and to our surprise, it was fairly clean and in nice condition. The conductor of the bus wasn’t grumpy and he gave us a single ticket for Rs. 270. Yes, that was cheap, so we bought the tickets and sat back in our seats with some stranger sharing the third seat in our row. He did not speak to us until we reached very close to Jaipur and that happened when I asked him to shift from the window seat, see I just wanted to take some photographs. On the way, the bus stopped at something which won’t even qualify for a Dhaba, on realizing that we had no options and Jaipur was still 180 km away, we ordered Paranthas with Rajma curry. There were actually very nice.

Now let me quickly jump to the bus stop in Jaipur, it took us a while to reach there (even after entering Jaipur). As soon as we got outside of the bus, one auto driver came to us and offered us to show hotels. After much discussion, we said okay let’s try and he took us to some hotels and we ended up taking one in Bani Park area, very close to the bus stop and also to the main road.

After bargaining and checking in, I opened up Jugnoo app and called for an auto, since it seemed like a cheap option but really wasn’t. What arrived was a tempo kind of thing and not really an auto. We went to Badi Chopad and explored the market and then walked to Raj Mandir Cinema for the Lassi shop called Shreenath Lassiwala only to find it closed. Nevermind, we had this Rajasthani thali at Natraj. Very nice thali, great service. Day 1 ended with us exploring places around that area. We took an Uber which there is for Rs5/km, cheaper than Delhi, had a nice chat with the driver.

Back at hotel, I was taking backup of the photographs I had clicked. I knew I would soon run out of space because I only carried two memory cards -8GB each, yeah I know what is going through your mind right now.

Next day, we got up real early, had a shitty breakfast and then took an e-Rickshaw to Badi Chopad from there we would catch a bus to Amer Fort. Fast-forward (spare me please, I know I am using this term too much) to the part where we take a bus, then another bus and then an e-Rickshaw again and finally arrive at the Zoo. I really wanted to visit zoo because-because I had recently purchased my first telephoto lens which is Tamron 70-300mm and I wanted to make sure that I use it. Uploading photographs that I took with it.

Then we roamed a bit more, had kachori one of the shops, ate lunch and then struggled to book a cab back to our hotel. At six in the evening, we boarded a bus, clean and nice and I took the window seat this time. I honestly dozed off for like 15 minutes in the starting but then I stared outside for the remaining journey. I was home at around 12:30, had dinner and slept!

Now, I need to buy a memory card. Say, a 32 GB or 16 GB would do! I also need to take more photographs, I uploaded these on facebook and got great response, people loved them.

I was looking out the window and this is what it looked like. The auto-rickshaws, cars and buses passed by and I looked at all of them. I looked at the bus that went towards the capital of India and saw several faces sitting inside the bus, some were tired and sleepy, some looked out of their windows eagerly and tried to capture the details of the small city called Moradabad and some were actually sleeping and had no interest in the view outside the vehicle.

It was a matter of 30-40 minutes and the clock showed time as 11 in the night and the sound of announcements of railway station started getting more clearer and I could hear the lady announcing that a particular train will be arriving at the station on No. 2 platform in 10 minutes and the train on No. 3 platform was about to leave. By now the street was completely empty and I turned around and closed the window and sat on the sofa and breathed the humid air of the hotel room. It was time to sleep.